When you talk about “size” are you talking about the work area or you talking about the actual physical size?

I will be using this exclusively for Milling and Routing type functions. I want this as rigid as possible BUT the kit I just purchased talks about the GT2 is long enough to give a total of 48″ of work area (I am assuming this is work area as it is referred to as “travel”).

If I understand correctly I can build a machine with a 24″ x 24″ work area which is physically 34.4″ x 34.4″ from the kit. Is this correct?

I know the reference machine is only 30″ squared physically (as in not work area). Will increasing the x and y size by 4.4 inches reduce the ability to be an effective milling and routing machine? I assume if this does effect the performance I can add mid-span supports? Another way to word this; does 34.4″ x 34.4″ physical size mean you recommend mid-span supports?

Lastly, the materials I will be cutting are aluminum and thin 4130 sheet (22 gauge or .035). Maybe hard woods like maple, phnolic and teflon.

When you talk about “size” are you talking about the work area or you talking about the actual physical size?

Outer dimensions.

I will be using this exclusively for Milling and Routing type functions. I want this as rigid as possible BUT the kit I just purchased talks about the GT2 is long enough to give a total of 48″ of work area (I am assuming this is work area as it is referred to as “travel”). If I understand correctly I can build a machine with a 24″ x 24″ work area which is physically 34.4″ x 34.4″ from the kit. Is this correct?

GT2 Belt enough for any combination of 48″ of X and Y axis length

Again Outer dimensions.

I know the reference machine is only 30″ squared physically (as in not work area). Will increasing the x and y size by 4.4 inches reduce the ability to be an effective milling and routing machine? I assume if this does effect the performance I can add mid-span supports? Another way to word this; does 34.4″ x 34.4″ physical size mean you recommend mid-span supports?

Lastly, the materials I will be cutting are aluminum and thin 4130 sheet (22 gauge or .035). Maybe hard woods like maple, phnolic and teflon.

If you want to cut Steel, stretching the machine to its limits should not be the goal. As far as I know the machine has only cut steel with a plasma cutter. It will cost you a few dollars in conduit and maybe an hour to resize your machine. I suggest you start very small to see if you can cut steel, and you will be thankful for a small machine when cutting aluminum.

Ok, so we are talking about a 12″ x 12″ work area with the kit as sold. Makes sense now.

I wouldn’t claim expert but I am not a new arrival from the end of a turnip truck either. I’ve been driving around a Sieg X3 with a CNCFusion premimum ballscrew kit and a Sherline PN3800 for a 4th axis since 2010. I’m a LinuxCNC guy and Fusion 360 with the new 4 and 5 axis milling functions in the pro version rounds out my workshop.

No, this experiment is to have a little machine to chop small parts to see wear and tear on the 3D printed parts themselves. I couldn’t really care how small it is as I have lots of tiny parts to produce. I really have no intentions to abuse this machine either but to use it daily and watch the design age with use.

That is the real reason to be honest, watching it age with use. If it turns out a few small parts that are actually usable along the way then I’m as happy as a clam 🙂

Hopefully you don’t see any wear on the plastic parts. I have rotated and replaced the conduit many many times with no visible plastic wear.

It can be made bid, that is why I asked if you have CAM experience, There are a few made 4’x4′ but you really need to know what the heck you are doing with CAM to make that usable. I still suggest you start small to learn the machine, the tiny super rigid machines you are using now are very very forgiving in the CAM area, those will stall a motor way before you flex the machine. The MPCNC is the opposite, once you get a handle on the differences you can go larger.

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Maybe you should rethink your shipping company. Not only was it repeatedly dropped it is soaking wet. It was delivered and the guy didn’t ring the bell and he ran. All but two of the plastic bags have burst from the impact inside. These is a reason USPS is losing money. Given free shipping with USPS or $50 with FedEx or UPS I would have paid for the better service…

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That is insane. Let me know if you find any damage, it is insured. I don’t think any of it could actually get too bad from some water though. You can file a complaint against your local carrier though, I have had to, one was not scanning the shipping labels he just let the main branch do it so there was no web tracking information until delivered you had to call and check on each number.

As for shipping, I watch all the videos, each company has plenty of horror stories. Luckily of the thousands of boxes I ship through USPS each year I have only had a 4-5 issues. Unfortunately for me it isn’t actually about the shipping price, the other companies don’t make bulk shipping and pricing easy for my sized company.

FWIW, from the customer side, signing up for USPS’s informed delivery service can be very helpful. I get texts and emails informing me of each package coming my way every time it is scanned, even if I don’t know something is being shipped to me, and I get scanned jpgs of every letter-sized piece of mail when it should be delivered, too. From my experience here, USPS is far and away more reliable for me than UPS or FedEx both in terms of delivery reliability and proper handling. But as Ryan said, everyone has horror stories.

FWIW, from the customer side, signing up for USPS’s informed delivery service can be very helpful. I get texts and emails informing me of each package coming my way every time it is scanned, even if I don’t know something is being shipped to me, and I get scanned jpgs of every letter-sized piece of mail when it should be delivered, too. From my experience here, USPS is far and away more reliable for me than UPS or FedEx both in terms of delivery reliability and proper handling. But as Ryan said, everyone has horror stories.

Interesting, never had somebody defend the USPS to me before.

People thought I was nuts back in 2004 when I had Internet but no cable TV. Next is a sign with my street number on it and no mailbox.

It looks like my little CNC will survive though so I’m not going to go “postal” over this :-p

+1 for informed delivery. I don’t have any problems with any of them here. But if for some reason they don’t leave the package, my local USPS office is five minutes away, and the ups and FedEx offices are almost an hour away.

Actually, I can’t remember the last time I got a FedEx package.

Also, ups has started advertising tailor Swift on their vans, so… Fail?

The USPS guy sometimes takes his lunch breaks in front of my house though, so maybe I get special treatment.

I have to look into the informed delivery, I have that for the other three, never thought about USPS. My DHL and FedEX from China comes in beat all to hell, I guesses it is from the poor boxes and fast delivery times, but most of my boxes come in sort of round even when they leave them at the door they have never left them label side up. On it’s end, upside down all fair game…

I have a friend that has worked at UPS forever, and I usually take my deliveries into the back of the post office. I really wish they both had different handling policies. They are very rough with them, FedEx is just way too expensive, I have never shipped with them other than overnighting a few docs for a previous company.

Shipping is a tough one one of my biggest concerns getting started. A previous company lost a whole ton of money with a poor shipping decision early on, they are the reason I don’t pre-sell and why I use USPS.

Is it like $5 worth of hardware? I would lose money even trying to fill out the form :-\

Instead I will cost them much more dearly, I will never use their services again. I will take down my mailbox at my new house and be done with them.

So far the system is going together very nicely. I would like to commend you on the printed stuff. I really hold in high regard those engineers like yourself who produce 3D models that print so perfectly. It really is an art form and I have enjoyed this build so far.